3rd Party App Updates for Tricky Clients
Hey team,
Looking for some magical solutions from the group. We've got a client that has ~5 critical 3rd party applications, and these applications have other 3rd party add-ins.
Our trouble, is these add-ins require updates once every month or three. We can automate the update, but to update the add-in, the main 3rd party application it integrates with must be closed. The client's fleet is also almost entirely laptops, and they work from home ~75% of their week.
The issue, as you can imagine, is regardless of how much communication (group-wide emails, pop-ups the afternoon prior, fugg'n texts.. etc), we can never get more than 60% of the staff to leave their shit on. We provide a report to the client of machines that were online and offline during the start of the maint window (and to whom they belong), we enable WOL, disable sleep & hibernation, etc, but consistently, routinely, people just straight up don't comply.
I know the respectable lot in this crew will say "this is an HR / management problem at the client and not a technical nor service delivery issue" and I don't at all disagree, but I'm constantly looking to challenge my mindset and approach to things and see if there is a better way things can be done.
Thoughts and ideas?